Strategies For Implementing An Effective Cybersecurity Awareness Training Program

Strategies For Implementing An Effective Cybersecurity Awareness Training Program

Cybersecurity is a tough topic to talk about in the workplace. Employers may be reluctant to acknowledge that their staff members are their greatest liability, particularly when it comes to the security of sensitive data. With hackers becoming more sophisticated and the number of various cyber threats growing, it’s crucial that companies take action to ensure their employees are well-trained to circumvent security risks and mitigate issues as they arise.

Here are several effective strategies for creating a cybersecurity awareness training program that works and implementing it on the job.

Create a Cyber Risk-Aware Culture Within Your Workplace

Whether your workplace is on-site or digital, your company can benefit from the creation of cyber risk-aware work culture. Essentially, by training your employees to be able to identify security risks and eliminate them, you create what is colloquially known as a “human firewall.” Often, this is a company’s best protection against spear-phishing and other sophisticated hacking tactics.

Understand Security Weaknesses That Your Company May Have

You won’t be able to protect what you don’t know about or can’t see. It’s important to take into account the full scope of security weaknesses that your company may have, such as unsecured network components, uninformed or poorly trained employees, lack of adequate password management, or failure to consistently assess your vulnerability and immediately address weak points.

Find Out If Your Industry Has Specific Compliance Requirements

Some industries have additional security concerns due to the nature of the sensitive data they work with, such as financial institutions and healthcare organizations. For example, the following organizations have specific regulatory compliance standards that companies within the industry must meet. Failure to do so can result in hefty fines and risk to the future longevity of your business.

• The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
• The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)
• The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
• The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)

If your organization deals with any of the above regulatory agencies, it’s critical that you maintain awareness of your responsibilities as a business owner. You need to know what actions should be taken to ensure that your company is able to consistently maintain compliance, even in a rapidly changing work environment.

Learn How to Create an Effective Cybersecurity Awareness Training Program

There are many key components to an effective cybersecurity awareness training program. Your organization will likely see the most success in implementing such a program if you ensure that the program:

• Can be easily operated and doesn’t require training for the training program
• Allows for the addition of new staff into automated onboarding
• Features content that is understandable and digestible for the average user
• Has robust reporting features that allow you to determine how effective the program is
• Is cost-effective and tenable in the long-term for your organization

Prepare for the Challenges You May Face When Implementing a Cybersecurity Awareness Training Program In Your Workplace

To successfully implement a cybersecurity awareness training program within the workplace, your company will need to overcome a number of challenges. Being aware of potential obstacles and what you can do to get around them ahead of time is nearly as valuable as the program itself. Here are several possible issues your company may face when taking action to improve cybersecurity awareness on the job.

• Your company may not understand how to create a comprehensive cybersecurity awareness training program that includes all the relevant information your staff needs to know to help protect your organization.
• Your company may not know how to analyze the results of such a training program to determine what is or isn’t effective or how to gauge success or failure.
• You may not have the financial resources or available staff to organize and manage ongoing cybersecurity awareness training for your institution.
• Your organization may lack access to the quality training tools and resources that are necessary to adequately train staff on how to identify and mitigate cybersecurity risks.

Contact Atlantic-IT.net Today to Learn How to Make Your Workplace Cyber-Aware and Cyber-Safe

At Atlantic-IT.net, we know how frustrating it can be to put time and effort into ensuring that you have the best IT protection on the market only to be undone by an employee who didn’t recognize a phishing email. Our goal is to help organizations in a wide variety of industries develop custom-tailored cybersecurity policies and training programs that make sure each and every staff member is up to snuff on how to identify security threats and how to handle them in the event they are encountered.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you develop and implement a successful cybersecurity awareness training program for your organization by calling (877) 936-3328.